The Proportion of Mothers Who Continued to Practice Kangaroo Mother Care at Home and Identify Potential Factors Influencing this Practice following Hospital Discharge, South Wollo, Ethiopia 2019

Abstract

Moges Workneh Ayele and Samuel Antenen

Background: Low birth weight continues to be a significant public health problem globally. Kangaroo mother care (KMC) is a promising intervention to improve the survival of low birth weight babies. KMC comprises of early and continuous skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby as well as exclusive breastfeeding. More interest has given to initiate KMC at the health facility for low birth weight babies born at home but, there has been trace evidence to support initiation of KMC at home. Thus, this study was aimed at to estimate the proportion of mothers who continued to practice kangaroo mother care at home and identify factors influencing this practice following hospital discharge.

Methods: It was a cross-sectional study of 190 mothers with their low birth weight babies who were discharged from KMC unit at Dessie referral and Akesta hospitals and counseled about KMC to practice at home. In the first week following hospital discharge the data collectors visited the mothers to interviewe her about KMC practice and the factors influencing it; and analyzed by SPSS V.25.0. Crud odd ratio and adjusted odd ration were performed to test the association between dependent and independent variables.

Result: The proportion of mothers who practice KMC at home was 89 (46.8%). Multivariate logistic regression showed that support from husband (AOR= 4.4, 95% CI = 1.8-10.4), support from HEW(AOR=3.4, 95% CI = 1.6-7.2), availability of helper (AOR= 4.5, 95% CI= 1.9-4.10) and mothers explained the important of KMC (AOR =2.3,95% CI =1.1- 4.9) were statistically associated with KMC practice at home.

Conclusion: This study concludes that support comes from husband, health extension workers and family and the mothers understanding of importance of KMC were found to be the significant enhancing factors to implement KMC at home.

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